- ■ < 41 ) ^ 



Remarks on some of Baron Cuviers Lectures on the History 

 of the Natural Sciences^ in reference to the Scientific Know- 

 ledge of the Egyptians ; of the source from zvhence Moses 

 derived his Cosmogony, and the general agreement of that 

 Cosmogony with Modern Geology *. 



In some of the Numbers of the Edinburgh New Philosophical 

 Journal published in 1830, are given Reports of Lectures on 

 the History of the Natural Sciences by Baron Cuvier ; and in 

 pages 342, No. XVI., we find in them the following statement 

 respecting the Hebrew legislator : — " His books shew us, that 

 he had very perfect ideas respecting several of the highest ques- 

 tions of natural philosophy. His cosmogony especially, consi- 

 dered in a purely scientific view, is extremely remarkable, inas- 

 much as the order which it assigns to the diff^erent epochs of 

 creation, is precisely the same as that which has been deduced 

 from geological considerations."* This, then, is the issue, in the 

 opinion of Baron Cuvier, of that science, which has been held 

 by many persons to teach conclusions at variance with the 

 Book of Genesis,^ — when at last more matured by a series of 

 careful observations and legitimate induction, it teaches us pre- 

 cisely what Moses had taught more than three thousand years ago. 

 But at the same time that the Baron makes this statement, it 

 is implied by him in the accompanying sentences, that the He- 

 brew legislator had acquired his knowledge of the cosmogony 

 from the Egyptians ; for he says, " The leaders of the colonies 

 which issued from Egypt possessed, in general, but a small 

 part of the knowledge of which the privileged caste (the priests) 

 was the depositary. They carried with them only the practi- 

 cal results. The case was different with the Hebrew legislator. 



• " No opinion can be heretical but that which is not true. Truths can 

 never war against each other. I affirm, therefore, that we have nothing to 

 fear from the results of our inquiries, provided they be followed in the labo- 

 rious but secure road of honest induction. In this way, we may rest assured, 

 ^e shall never arrive at conclusions opposed to any truth, either physical or 

 moral, from whatsoever source that truth may be derived ; nay, rather that 

 new discoveries will ever lend support and illustration to things which are al- 

 ready known, by giving us a larger insight into the universal harmonies of 

 Nature."— /»ro/(?wor Sedgwick's Address to the Geological Society^ February 19. 

 1830. 



